Apple CEO Steve Jobs turned 55 this week according to TUAW, so we'll start off by wishing a healthy, happy, peaceful, and prosperous birthday! What do you get the man who gave us the Apple II, Mac, Pixar, iPod, iTunes, Apple Retail, iPhone, and iPad? Well, a couple of awards aren't a bad place to start...

ngmoco's We Rule for iPhone hits Canadian App Store

Once again, a new ngmoco's game has hit the Canadian App Store first -- this time it's kingdom-builder We Rule [Free with in-app purchases - iTunes link]. Hey, there's no Hulu or Google Voice in Canada, so fair's fair!

Like all recent ngmoco games, We Rule leverages the social gaming element via their Plus+ network, and has in-app purchases for "Mojo" which basically speed up things like growing crops and building homes, so you can pay if you don't want to wait. In this case, Mojo can run from $0.99 to for 1 to $49.00 for 800. You don't have to buy it, you just have to be patient if you don't.

It seems like you do have to log in to play, however, which is handy since you can keep one game going over multiple devices (like your iPhone and iPod touch, as long as they're logged in to the same Plus+ account), but if you don't care about that and just want to launch and play on your own, it's a step you can't skip.

No doubt ngmoco is doing what they do best here, taking a popular category of game and making it their own -- and making it excellent for the iPhone OS platform. If you're a fan of these types of farming, kingdom building games, you'll likely be a big fan of We Rule.

Again, Canadian only for now, though @ngmoco is giving away codes to allow early US access on Twitter. If you download it -- or score a code -- let us know what you think!

Student Makes iPod Explode During Class

A high school student had her iPod explode on her desk yesterday and luckily not a single student was injured. This is not the first time we've heard of exploding iPods or iPhones but this particular case seems to be a little different so don't be so quick to blame Apple. Gizmodo points out that another student has told the true story.

We're moving TiPb's Facebook presence from the old group and page to a newer, shiner, and -- soon to be -- better, unified TiPb Fan Page!

The bad news: since we can't rename the old iphoneblog.com page or transfer the group to go with new, we have to apologize for asking everyone to move over with us, but we'll do our best to more than make up for the hassle -- that's a promise!

More iPhone OS on Mac and Apple TV Talk

A little while ago TiPb asked if the Apple TV should be switched over to the iPhone OS, but what about the Mac? Coincidentally, a recent Apple job offering was discovered by ComputerWorld that hinted Apple was seriously considering pushing the iPhone OS from phone, MP3-player iPod touch, and tablet iPad to further devices:

AT&T Microcell to Boost iPhone Reception in 5 More Markets

George Ponder over at sibling site WMExperts brings word that AT&T's Microcell -- the device you plug into your home cable/DSL connection to boost your phone reception -- is being rolled out to Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, San Diego, and Las Vegas.

Consume 1.6 Hits App Store, Goes on Sale

Consume [$0.99 on sale - iTunes link] is the awesome little app for the those of us who don't have unlimited anything on our iPhones... or ISPs. Yes, tiered data is a reality in some parts of the world, and we have to watch our MBs/GBs as closely as we watch our voice minutes. While I've been using Consume to do that on Rogers for a while now, their latest update -- version 1.6 -- improves support for existing providers and adds support for:

TiPb Give-Away: WeeMee Avatar Creator for iPhone

WeeMee Avatar Creator from WeeWorld [$0.99 - iTunes Link]. The application allows you to make your an avatar for yourself and your friends. Select various hairstyles, clothing, accessories, over 250 choices in all. Then you can use these avatars for your address book, Facebook, Twitter, MMS or just to email to friends.

I had so much fun using this application that I forgot that I was testing out the app. (It would also keep your children entertained as the controls are simple to use.)

You choose a male or female WeeMee and then you can select the head shape, eyes and mouth, eye color, clothing, background etc. Select the item type at the top of the screen and then just swipe through the choices till you find the one you want.

The Gallery view helps maintain all your WeeMee's and you can choose to export or edit your saved WeeMee's.

So how do you get this app for FREE? Just comment below and say which famous person (or TiPb staff member! ahem) you want to make into an avatar, and we'll select three people at random. Give-away starts now and ends Sunday February 28th at 12pm PT. Promo Codes require a US App Store account (Apple’s rule, not ours). They also expire, so if you win, redeem quickly!

And if you buy the app or win it, I would love to see your TiPb staff member WeeMee's!